Schools towards 'Ordinary Life'

Description

Educational systems in European countries are facing several urgent challenges concerning how to pedagogically and socially include newly arrived refugee students. This practice oriented project seeks to develop our understanding of how education can contribute to the transitions and movements newly arrived migrant children make in their efforts to resume an ‘ordinary life’ in their resettlement context. The aim of the project is to develop Ravi Kohli’s conceptual model ‘the move towards ordinary life’ by relating and applying it to schools’ work with newly arrived children in two countries: Sweden and England. This will enable us to understand, challenge and develop school practitioners’ strategies with asylum seeking/ refugee (ASR) children. The cross- national perspective makes it possible to evaluate situations in a new light, which can provide innovative responses. Moreover, and Axel Honneth’s and Nancy Fraser’s perspectives from social philosophy will be used to add theoretical depth to Kohli’s conceptual framework.Central to the project is an exchange between head teachers and teachers at schools in England and Sweden as well as an ethnographic study of the reception and education of ASR children at the participating schools, including interviews with head teachers, teachers, students and parents/guardians. The researchers will use the analysis of the empirical material to develop Kohli’s conceptual framework towards the field of education and compare the Swedish and English contexts. The analysis will result in suggestions for improved policy and practice leading to the resumption of ‘ordinary life’ for young people who, at the point of becoming forced migrants and refugees, stopped experiencing an everyday existence.